Which Decisions are God's and Which are Mine?

As a matter of daily routine, I organize my day and most mundane decisions according to common sense.  Then, if my Master calls me to deviate, I obey and deviate in the way He asks.  At least that is how I intend for it to be.  I believe most believers use a similar method to organize their day.  The reason is that waiting for God to speak to every little decision would actually be chaotic.  I've tried.  He seems to speak to larger things.  The Scripture, on the other hand is a wonderful guide to the daily grind.  Since He inspired Scripture, it is His direction on the daily routine.  Waiting for more would ask Him to repeat Himself.

So much for the daily routine, but what about ministry decisions or big life decisions?  What about those things which, by their nature, are outside the daily routine?  In these circumstances I have several options to draw from for a decision.  I can look through Scripture for answers.  I can wait in meditative prayer for God to speak to the situation.  I can review the situation through my common sense.  I can listen to others and what they say about the situation.  I can look at the situation and pursue my duty or obligation (the option Chamber is speaking against).  There are more things I can do to arrive at a decision, but I will examine these five.

The first two are the "spiritual" things to do.  But I believe the next two are the most commonly used.  The obligation or duty option is actually a relief since it seems to relieve me of the need to make a decision; if I'm obligated or have a duty in regard to it, then that's what I should do.  But as I examine my patterns of decision-making, I see what I really didn't want to see.  For instance, as I understand Scripture, Jesus loves the down-trodden, poor, and the helpless.  This seems true in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the Christian Scriptures.  So you might expect a certain amount of obligation or duty to come into play with my decision making when I see the pan-handler on the freeway off ramp or intersection.  The guy on the street who asks for change should invoke a certain amount of duty/obligation in me.  As I have said, obligation and duty make the decision easier, right?  Well, I don't help them.  I try not to acknowledge them.  I avoid carrying change.  It's only after the situation I feel that pang of shame knowing that Jesus would have done that differently.  I have common sense explanation for why I react that way.  It amounts to the usual reasons to distrust people in that condition, and they do not arise from real knowledge, but rather the stories of others reported by still others farther removed.  In short, I fear, a theme that has cropped up a lot in these posts.  But fear is not the only motivator I found in my decision-making patterns. 

When I have to decide on larger choices in my life, for instance listing our house and all the other decisions which follow, I do not necessarily rely on those first two methods of decision making.  Now, to be fair, I do try and use them.  I spend a lot of time with them.  But, God does not always speak to me in that way.  I believe the reason is that those are more effective when God is already speaking, and they are times when I finally stop and listen.  If I simply expect Him to speak whenever I stop to listen, then I am the one to whom He responds; and that is not very sovereign of Him.  As it turns out, He IS sovereign, and feels no compulsion to answer me when I happen to stop and ask a question.  He prefers to speak in His own time, in His own ways, about whatever He wants to talk about.  Since He is the Master of the Universe, I indulge Him in this, but since others really want answers, I have to come up with something, so I "punt" so to speak, and fall back on options three and four.  Did you notice that I fall back on them out of obligation or duty?  That, of course, brings me right smack within Chambers arena of criticism.

I admit, there have been times when this method of falling back on common sense and the advice of others worked out well, or seemed to.  But there is this nagging underlying voice that accuses me of following the easy path.  I wonder, perhaps fear, that I have not been obedient to my Master.  I fear that, if I have not been obedient, that He will not bless or bring the plans to fruition.  This ensuing stress is no fun.  And I have good rational reasons for moving in the direction I am, so why the fear?

In John 16:30, Jesus' disciples tell Him that they finally "get it"; they finally know He knows everything (and doesn't need to be questioned - not sure I get that part), and that they finally believe He came from God.  He responds by asking if they really believe now, and then proceeds to tell them they will be scattered shortly.  Am I telling Jesus I "get it", only to have Him respond with "really?"  I am as certain as I can be without a lighted billboard or angelic visitation, that I am pursuing the right path.  But I confess that my route to that path may have been to take a shortcut through the brush instead of walking the bend in the road.  I admit that there may have been a detail I missed, and I could have found a different path and mistaken it for the one God had me on, but I don't think so.  I think this way because I believe that, at times, God does speak through common sense (which He gave me to use in this way) and the advice of other people.  I believe that I am in one of those times now.  And I also believe that, while duty and obligation may have caused me stress as I arrived at my decision, my fear and respect for my Master kept me listening for His voice in the advice of others and my own God-given common sense all along the way.  Today may be a good day to review my posts and see if they verify that claim.